Plans have been submitted for a new short-stay motorhome facility at Mill Street Car Park in Llangollen as part of a wider project to support tourism, improve visitor infrastructure and benefit local businesses.
The proposal includes six overnight motorhome bays and associated infrastructure, helping to encourage visitors to stay longer in the town and spend with local shops, cafés, restaurants and attractions.
The planning application follows improvement work already carried out at Mill Street Car Park, which has helped make the site safer, more attractive and more welcoming for residents, visitors and businesses.
The improvements include replacement of missing and broken block paving, repairs to fencing between the upper section of the car park and the A539, refreshed parking bay lining, new seating, replacement railings and street furniture, upgraded lighting and new footpath crossing points.
The grant-funded improvements are intended to complement the proposed Motorhome Aire provision, subject to planning consent, by creating a better-quality visitor gateway close to Llangollen town centre.
The project will not result in the loss of 29 daytime parking spaces at the site. The area will remain multi-use during the day, with cars able to park between the motorhome bays. At night, additional spacing is required between motorhomes to meet fire safety requirements, which is why the overnight layout differs from daytime parking use.
Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said:
“This proposal is about supporting Llangollen's visitor economy in a managed and responsible way. By providing designated short-stay overnight facilities for motorhome users, we can encourage visitors to spend more time in the town and support local businesses, while helping to reduce the impact of unauthorised overnight stays. It is also important to be clear that the scheme would not remove 29 daytime parking spaces. The car park would continue to be available for daytime use, with the overnight layout simply reflecting the additional spacing needed for motorhome safety requirements.”
The proposal at Mill Street car park forms part of the overall Denbighshire Motorhome Aire project, which aims to address unauthorised overnight stays by motorhome owners at locations across the county where there is no legal right to sleep overnight in a vehicle.
The scheme is designed to help prevent the environmental and social issues caused by illegal camping, while providing better facilities for short-stay overnight motorhome and campervan visitors.
Across Denbighshire, the project will bring forward proposals for designated overnight motorhome and campervan areas at five locations, focusing on places that are already popular with visitors and close to local businesses that could benefit from increased footfall.
Planning applications will be submitted for each site to enable the installation of the relevant infrastructure. Proposed work will be funded through Welsh Government Brilliant Basics funding, which supports improvements to essential visitor infrastructure, and the UK Government Pride in Place Impact Fund.
The sites, including Mill Street, have been selected because they are known hotspots for unauthorised overnight stays, are popular with tourists and have nearby businesses that could benefit from visitors using designated Aire facilities.
The facilities would provide short-stay overnight parking for motorhomes for a maximum of two nights on public car parks or council-owned areas located close to towns and existing amenities.
At each site, the focus will be on providing safe and secure overnight parking, supported by basic facilities for emptying wastewater and foul water and refilling motorhomes with fresh water. The bays will be hardstanding areas for short-stay use only. BBQs, fires, awnings and tents will not be permitted.
It is proposed that motorhome users staying at Denbighshire County Council-owned sites will be able to pay through a new tariff on the current car parking mobile phone app or at onsite meters.
If planning permission is granted, work at Mill Street will include measures to prevent unauthorised parking and support better management of overnight stays.
